Strategies for Advocating Palestinian Statehood

Pro-Palestinian events, public relations campaigns, public education efforts and other measures aimed at persuading the American public of the need to end the occupation and create a Palestinian state should stress the receivable message that US foreign policy should be balanced and fair, and oriented towards the accomplishment of a viable and achievable peace. To succeed, pro-Palestinian advocacy needs to emphasize the positive aspects of Palestinian statehood, and why the creation of a Palestinian state is good for the United States. Of course, criticism of Israeli policies such as settlement activity, the West Bank barrier, unilateral measures that prejudice final status outcomes, the closure regime, economic warfare, the use of excessive force, assassinations and torture, etc., plainly need to also be part of the discourse.

The problem is not just that the American establishment, with the solid backing of the American public, is well disposed towards and committed to the defense of Israel, whether or not people can agree with all aspects of Israeli policy. It is also that strident and almost exclusively critical rhetoric misleadingly suggests that Palestinians are motivated more by an antipathy towards Israel than being committed to a national movement which seeks positive, pro-active change that involves freedom, liberation and democracy. This, of course, plays perfectly into the hands of the false argument that the Palestinian national movement, and even the Palestinian identity as such, is rooted simply in opposition to Zionism and the state of Israel. Moreover, one would note that political movements that are defined entirely in opposition to an existing practice or reality have historically fared badly, unless they have been able to emphasize what they are for. For example, anti-colonial movements have emphasized the desire for independence and freedom, the antislavery movement became a battle for the cause of the emancipation, the anti-apartheid movement became a movement for equality and democracy ("one man, one vote"), etc. For the Palestinian movement to be perceived as simply critical of or “anti-“ Israel without communicating positive content condemns it to a disinterested and unenthusiastic reception by most Americans, who are yearning for a solution rather than an explanation to the conflict.

The ATFP Strategy for Pro-Palestinian Advocacy

ATFP argues that Palestinian Americans and other American supporters of the cause should make full use of their status as Americans in reaching out to this audience. A crucial factor in the success of other national agendas and other American ethnic groups in influencing American foreign policy support for those agendas has been to emphasize the patriotic nature of this advocacy. Jewish Americans, Cubans, Irish, Greeks, Armenians, Iraqis and other ethnic groups in the United States that have sought to influence foreign policy to their own ends have all done so by framing of their arguments primarily in terms of the American national interest. The first question all Americans want answered is: how is this important to our country? Unfortunately, Palestinian Americans and their supporters have often been exceptionally poor at articulating an answer to this question, and usually do not even attempt to do so. Instead, what has usually been put forth is a litany of justified but largely irrelevant criticism of Israeli policies and/or denunciations of American support for Israel, which sometimes is strident enough to sound like overt anti-Americanism. This is all the more unfortunate given the obvious and powerful arguments Palestinians can deploy in advocating for an American national interest in creating a Palestinian state.

These arguments can roughly be summarized in the five following points:

1) Promote U.S. Interests in the Middle East generally. Peace based on the creation of a Palestinian state will remove the greatest single obstacle to the realization of US policy aims in the region: the skepticism of Arabs generally about US intentions. Every poll, study and survey of Middle Eastern, and specifically Arab, public opinion beginning of the intifada in September 2002, has demonstrated the profoundly negative effect that this ongoing conflict, and the US role in it as principal supporter of Israel has had on perceptions of the United States. This negative opinion cuts across national, class, religious, geographical and other barriers, and is widely recognized as a major problem in Washington and by Americans generally (hence the creation of Hi Magazine, Radio Sawa, and Al Hura TV). It is fairly non-controversial, although infrequently argued, that the simplest and most profound gesture to repair its image and promoted interests among the Arabs that the United States could take would be to be seen to play a leading role in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and helping the Palestinians achieve freedom and independence. It is even understood that this would influence positively events in Iraq, and beyond. Moreover, the Palestinian state in question will be a new democracy, and also be a new ally of the United States, and a partner to Israel in peace.

2) Constitute a Major Victory in the "War on Terror." Most observers have agreed, and most Americans have accepted, that al Qaeda and the Salafist-Jihadist movement in general have a more or less cynically hijacked the Palestinian cause, but that the suffering of the Palestinians and the persistence of the conflict constitutes a major rhetorical device that allows them to pursue recruits and support for anti-American violent activity. Many people, including former senior government officials, CIA officers, political scientists and commentators and other persons closely associated with the American establishment and having impeccable reputations have made the point forcefully that a resolution of the conflict and the creation of a Palestinian state would be a major blow to anti-American extremism in the region.

3) Strongly Enhance the US Role as World Leader. Americans are aware that they have assumed the role of "world leadership," and most are comfortable with this. Most also have the sense that this involves the cooperation and acquiescence of other powers, especially established powers such as the European Union, Japan and Russia, as well as emerging powers such as India, China and Brazil. A powerful argument can be made that resolving the longest running and most politically divisive war in the world, and solving a problem that has evaded solution in previous eras, would be an important demonstration all of the responsibility and worthiness of United States in its role as “world leader.” It would not only be an enormous enhancement to the credibility of any individual American political figure who could take credit for this achievement, but also the American state. It would demonstrate that the United States does not operate a system of double standards, but is capable of providing benefits to Arabs generally and Palestinians in particular, in contrast to the accusations of its detractors. It would also enhance the idea that the United States is a force for international law and order, and does not impose UN Security Council resolutions in an arbitrary and self-interested manner. Americans believe that they should be trusted to run a monopolar world system in the general interest of all. They also understand that the world expects a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially close allies such as the UK and Tony Blair. One can easily demonstrate the enormous benefit to international prestige and posture of world leadership to the United States through a resolution of this conflict and the creation of a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel in peace.

4) The Opening of Major Middle Eastern Economic Markets. Many economists have suggested that United States economic interests have been held back across the Middle East because of skepticism and hostility resulting largely from the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Resolving the conflict would mean the removal of major barriers to trade and other relations between the United States and 23 Arab states, and 1.2 billion Muslims around the world, to the tremendous mutual benefit of both Americans and Arabs. It seems irrefutable that the US commercial interests could only benefit from a resolution to this very damaging conflict.

5) A Major Step in Promoting American Values Worldwide. The creation of a Palestinian state corresponds to the most fundamental American political values of freedom, independence and democracy. Americans also need to be educated about the fact that the 3.5 million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation are the largest group of non-citizens in the world today. Americans have a profound sense, which can be tapped into with enormous effect, of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. In order to promote an understanding that the key to peace is an end to the occupation, it must be made clear that occupation means living without citizenship and under a government to which one has no access and in which one is totally unrepresented. The Palestinians are a highly educated people with a thriving internal civil society and a history of political pluralism, and there is little doubt that democracy will be able to take root among them if they are independent, as the January, 2005 election demonstrated. Therefore, the creation of a Palestinian state means the birth of a new democracy, and the emergence of millions of new citizens of a new democracy, and the ending of a period in which millions of people lived without benefit of those basic political freedoms which constitute the founding ethos of the United States.

It should be emphasized that the idea of “the creation of a Palestinian state” should always be yoked to the concept of "living alongside Israel in peace.” This completes the circle by emphasizing that the goal is peace, and removes any doubts about intentions of the Palestinian national movement vis-à-vis the future of Israel. This is important because advocates representing the Israeli right have been very successful in painting the Palestinian movement as being driven to criticize, attack and even destroy Israel, rather than to create freedom and independence for the Palestinian people and to accomplish reconciliation and an end to the conflict. As noted above, common tactics employed by pro-Palestinian rhetoric in United States have played into this misperception by concentrating energy on criticizing Israel and either downplaying or leaving out altogether the positive content of regarding the creation of a Palestinian state.

The themes to be stressed are three:

1) Freedom for the Palestinians

2) Peace for Israel

3) Enhanced National Security for the United States.

Any policy that promises to deliver freedom, peace and national security is going to be a real winner in the eyes of most Americans. Contrast this with the effort to convince people, for purely moral reasons, to disapprove of Israeli policies without any positive content whatsoever. The message we are sending can be boiled down into this sentence:

The creation of a Palestinian state to live in peace alongside Israel will mean freedom for the Palestinians, peace for Israel, and enhanced national security for the United States.

We are advocating that Palestinian Americans and their supporters should speak as Americans first, and emphasize the benefits to the United States of the creation of a Palestinian state, rather than emphasizing a strident critique of American foreign policy that sounds accusatory against the United States, or by enumerating endlessly the sins of Israel. By doing so we can maximize our effectiveness, and better serve the aim of promoting to Americans the creation of a Palestinian state and an end to the occupation.